Iridium transmission formats for buoys

By Pierre Blouch, Météo-France

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Version 0.9 - September 17 , 2010

The present document describes a list of dataformats which should be used to report buoy
observations through Iridium. These dataformats are the results of experiences got within the
Iridium Pilot Project.

1. Common characteristics
Each dataformat starts with a 8-bit identifier which characterizes the type of the buoy : SVP-B
drifter with or without GPS, SVP-BS drifter (salinity), SVP-BTC drifter (fitted with a thermistor
chain), basic Ice buoy… A new dataformat should be drawn soon for the SVP-BW drifter
(Wind).
The format identifier is followed by the observation timestamp (year, month, day, hour, minute),
then basic measurements carried out by SVP-B drifters (air pressure, SST, barometer
tendency, submergence – or strain gauge – count, battery voltage).
Then, two technical parameters of the Iridium transmission are reported. Although the first
should be the Iridium transmission duration in seconds, the second parameter is left in
manufacturer’s hands (see § 3).
Excepted for the SVP-B drifters which are not fitted with a GPS1, the next block of all other
dataformats contains the GPS position, its age (time delay) in minutes, as well as a couple of
technical parameters which are left in manufacturer’s hands (see § 3).
Important:
It is recommended to fill up the rooms of missing parameters with all bits to “1” excepted for
the GPS position. In case a GPS fix is not available at the observation time, the previous
position is reported with its time delay in minutes (reference is the time of observation for the
other parameters). In case the most recent position is older than 4094 minutes, 4095 is
reported in the message (i.e. all bits fitted to “1”).
In order to save energy on drifting buoys, GPS fixes may be get less frequently than other
parameters (e.g. every thre hours instead of hourly). The GPS fix time delay is then different
from zero. On ships, GPS fixes must be get at the same time than observed parameters.

2. List of dataformats
Ident. Platform type
000 SVP-B with GPS
001 SVP-B without GPS
002-019 Reserved for buoys
020 SVP-BS (salinity drifter)
021-029 Reserved for buoys
030 SVP-BTC (thermistor chain)
031-039 Reserved for buoys
040 Basic Ice Buoy
041-049 Reserved for buoys
050 SVP-BW (WOTAN buoy – to be designed)
051-099 Reserved bor buoys
100-199 Reserved (see Iridium dataformats for ships)
200-255 Reserved

1
The Iridium position is used instead.
 Format #000 - SVP-B with GPS
(20 bytes)

Parameter Bits Pos Offset Max Formula

Format identifier 8 0 0 254 Forced to 0 in present version
Year 7 8 2000 2126 Year = n + 2000
Month 4 15 0 12 Month = n
Day 6 19 0 31 Day = n
Hour 5 25 0 23 Hour = n
Minute 6 30 0 59 Minute = n
Air pressure 11 36 850.0 1054.6 AP (hPa) = n*0.1 + 850
SST 12 47 -5.00 35.94 SST (°C) = n*0.01 - 5
Pressure tendancy 9 59 -25.5 25.5 dP (hPa) = n*0.1 - 25.5
Submergence count 6 68 0 100 Subm. (%) = n * 1.6129
Battery voltage 6 74 5 17.4 Vbat (V) = n*0.2 + 5
Iridium transmission duration 8 80 0 254 SBDT (s) = n
nd
2 Iridium Tech. parameter 8 88 0 254 See § 3
GPS fix time delay 12 96 0 4094 Delay (min) = n
GPS Latitude 20 108 -90 90 Lat (deg) = n*0.0002 - 90
GPS Longitude 21 128 -180 180 Lon (deg) = n*0.0002 - 180
st
1 GPS Technical parameter 7 149 0 126 See § 3
nd
2 GPS Technical parameter 4 156 0 14 See § 3

Format #001 - SVP-B without GPS

(12 bytes)

Parameter Bits Pos Offset Max Formula

Format identifier 8 0 0 254 Forced to 1 in present version
Year 7 8 2000 2126 Year = n + 2000
Month 4 15 0 12 Month = n
Day 6 19 0 31 Day = n
Hour 5 25 0 23 Hour = n
Minute 6 30 0 59 Minute = n
Air pressure 11 36 850.0 1054.6 AP (hPa) = n*0.1 + 850
SST 12 47 -5.00 35.94 SST (°C) = n*0.01 - 5
Pressure tendancy 9 59 -25.5 25.5 dP (hPa) = n*0.1 - 25.5
Submergence count 6 68 0 100 Subm. (%) = n * 1.6129
Battery voltage 6 74 5 17.4 Vbat (V) = n*0.2 + 5
Iridium transmission duration 8 80 0 254 SBDT (s) = n
nd
2 Iridium Tech. parameter 8 88 0 254 See § 3
 Format #020 - SVP-BS (salinity)
(24 bytes)

Parameter Bits Pos Offset Max Formula

Format identifier 8 0 0 254 Forced to 20 in present version
Year 7 8 2000 2126 Year = n + 2000
Month 4 15 0 12 Month = n
Day 6 19 0 31 Day = n
Hour 5 25 0 23 Hour = n
Minute 6 30 0 59 Minute = n
Air pressure 11 36 850.0 1054.6 AP (hPa) = n*0.1 + 850
SST 12 47 -5.00 35.94 SST (°C) = n*0.01 - 5
Pressure tendancy 9 59 -25.5 25.5 dP (hPa) = n*0.1 - 25.5
2
CT temperature 12 68 -5.00 35.94 CT_temp (°C) = n*0.01 - 5
Salinity 12 80 15.00 55.94 SST (psu) = n*0.01 + 15
CT sensor error 1 92 0 1 Err = n
Submergence count 6 93 0 100 Subm. (%) = n*1.6129
Battery voltage 6 99 5 17.4 Vbat (V) = n*0.2 + 5
Iridium transmission duration 8 105 0 254 SBDT (s) = n
nd
2 Iridium Tech. parameter 8 113 0 254 See § 3
GPS fix time delay 12 121 0 4094 Delay (min) = n
GPS Latitude 20 133 -90 90 Lat (deg) = n*0.0002 - 90
GPS Longitude 21 153 -180 180 Lon (deg) = n*0.0002 - 180
st
1 GPS Technical parameter 7 174 0 126 See § 3
nd
2 GPS Technical parameter 4 181 0 14 See § 3
Spare (unused) 7 185 All bits forced to « 1 »

2
Sea temperature measured by the conductivity sensor
 Format #030 - SVP-BTC (thermistor chain)

Parameter Bits Pos Offset Max Formula

Format identifier 8 0 0 254 Forced to 30 in present version
Year 7 8 2000 2126 Year = n + 2000
Month 4 15 0 12 Month = n
Day 6 19 0 31 Day = n
Hour 5 25 0 23 Hour = n
Minute 6 30 0 59 Minute = n
Air pressure 11 36 850.0 1054.6 AP (hPa) = n*0.1 + 850
SST 12 47 -5.00 35.94 SST (°C) = n*0.01 - 5
Pressure tendancy 9 59 -25.5 25.5 dP (hPa) = n*0.1 – 25.5
Submergence count 6 68 0 100 Subm. (%) = n*1.6129
Battery voltage 6 74 5 17.4 Vbat (V) = n*0.2 + 5
Iridium transmission duration 8 80 0 254 SBDT (s) = n
nd
2 Iridium Tech. parameter 8 88 0 254 See § 3
GPS fix time delay 12 96 0 4094 Delay (min) = n
GPS Latitude 20 108 -90 90 Lat (deg) = n*0.0002 - 90
GPS Longitude 21 128 -180 180 Lon (deg) = n*0.0002 - 180
st
1 GPS Technical parameter 7 149 0 126 See § 3
nd
2 GPS Technical parameter 4 156 0 14 See § 3
Number of temp. probes 5 160 0 30 NbT = n
Number of press. probes 3 165 0 6 NbP = n
Depth of temp. probe T1 8 168 0 254 DT1 (m) = n
Temp. of probe T1 12 176 -5 35.94 T1 (°C) = n*0.01 - 5
Depth of temp. probe T2 8 188 0 254 DT2 (m) = n
Temp. of probe T2… 12 196 -5 35.94 T2 (°C) = n*0.01 - 5

3
Position of press. probe P1 8 0 254 PP1 (m) = n
4
Pressure of probe P1… 8 0 254 P1 (m ) = n

The length of the message is equal to:

(21 bytes + NbT * 2.5 bytes + NbP * 2 bytes)
… where NbT is the number of temperature probes and NbP is the number of pressure probes. For
instance, the length of the message for a buoy having 16 temperature probes and one pressure
sensor – at the bottom of the string – will be 63 bytes.
The real depth of each temperature probe is normally provided by the buoy. However, it may be re-
computed thanks to the pressure probes.

3
Distance from the pressure probe to the buoy.
4 4
Equivalent to 10 Pa.
 Format #040 - Basic Ice Buoy
(21 bytes)

Parameter Bits Pos Offset Max Formula

Format identifier 8 0 0 254 Forced to 40 in present version
Year 7 8 2000 2126 Year = n + 2000
Month 4 15 0 12 Month = n
Day 6 19 0 31 Day = n
Hour 5 25 0 23 Hour = n
Minute 6 30 0 59 Minute = n
Air pressure 11 36 850.0 1054.6 AP (hPa) = n*0.1 + 850
Hull temperature 10 47 -60.0 42.2 HT (°C) = n*0.1 - 60
Pressure tendency 9 57 -25.5 25.5 dP (hPa) = n*0.1 - 25.5
Air Temperature 10 66 -60.0 42.2 AT (°C) = n*0.1 - 60
Battery voltage 6 76 5 17.4 Vbat (V) = n*0.2 + 5
Iridium transmission duration 8 82 0 254 SBDT (s) = n
nd
2 Iridium Tech. parameter 8 90 0 254 See § 3
GPS fix time delay 12 98 0 4094 Delay (min) = n
GPS Latitude 20 110 -90 90 Lat (deg) = n*0.0002 - 90
GPS Longitude 21 130 -180 180 Lon (deg) = n*0.0002 - 180
st
1 GPS Technical parameter 7 151 0 126 See § 3
nd
2 GPS Technical parameter 4 158 0 14 See § 3
Spare (unused) 6 162 All bits forced to « 1 »
3. Iridium and GPS technical parameters

nd st nd
2 Iridium 1 GPS 2 GPS
Manufacturer
parameter parameter parameter
5
Marlin Iridium transm. retry Time to first GPS fix Nb of GPS satellites
5 6
Metocean Unused Time to first GPS fix GPS S/N ratio
5
Pacific Gyre Unused ? Time to first GPS fix ? 2D or 3D GPS fix

Examples of manufacturer’s choices for Iridium and GPS technological parameters

5
TTFF(s) = n * 2
6
GPS S/N (dB) = n * 4